First a near-vertical thin finger crack, then veer right along the roof on grainy hands, then a fun exit sequence pulling over the top. 28 Jan 2006

I am leading Cake Walk (5.9), beginning the short traverse. The climb was fun, not really a pure crack climb. There were a lot of features on the the face and edge of the crack that you could pull on.

Trying to onsight Prepackaged. A few minutes later I took my first lead fall onto a purple friend.

I cannot overstate how lucky I was! I show up to J-Tree without a climbing partner, expecting to climb in a team of three, only to find Deb. She and I clicked together on the first route, and climbed together for the rest of the week. Her smile was infectious, and I fed off her energy, propelling me to complete routes I feared too difficult. I could not do anything but smile looking down and seeing her giving me a flawless belay. Here she follows me up Taurus during our most productive day of climbing. I will never forget that time out in the desert.

This was taken (7-jan-06) from my front porch early in the morning before a day of climbing in a "forbidden" area.

Unknown climbers on various routes (Bird on a Wire? Dappled Mare?). I took this after topping out on Rock Candy, one of the routes on the Shorter Wall (Rock Garden Valley), which forms the backside of the Lost Horse Wall.

Steve topping out on the Swift at sunset with the moonrise above him. by Omar Abukurah

Photo by Hanna Dawud November 12, 2005 - difficult placements

This is me climbing "Men with cow heads", while my buddy alan belays. This is my 1st trad lead, and I definitely caught the trad bug!

This is an onsight of a highly recommended route. It's short but fun. To the left is Maggie's Farm, also a fun one. The last time I touched my rack was a little over 10 months ago. Not a bad way to return to the sport.

Trying to figure out how the last pitch of The Swift goes; guidebook doesn't show the last 50 ft. So I end up leading a 5.9 variation that is a little wet... getting lost was the main theme of this Red Rocks/ Joshua Tree trip!

There is so much climbing in J-Tree even the baby J-Trees wear helmets to protect from rockfall along with headlamps of course.

AT the top of The Swift a cool view of some of the far out regions of Joshua Tree. We were lucky to have the whole park to ourselves as it had just stopped raining.

A fun 5-6 climb with good protection until the traverse under the overhang near the top. In the photo, I'm placing a large hex on top of a weird finned, softball-sized projection with a central hole and 6 inch crack running down the front. Below it, a yellow alien fits into a short horizontal crack for good measure. 20 ft to the right of the top of the climb, a large bolder can be slung with a 20 ft sling for a belay anchor.

Sheila pulling one of the roofs, heading up to the utterly sweet finish, stemming out left wide and finger jamming up a thin crack that arches to flat at topout. Do this! 8 Oct 2005

Lee leading this steep and thin mixed bolts and gear route on the backside of Upper Freeway Wall, behind Cakewalk. Just look to the right on your scramble down that descent gully. Felt about 5.10a. Anyone know the name and rating? For updating the routes database. 8 Oct 2005

He we are getting ready for a great day of climbing on our way to do "The Swift"

Here are my flappers from taking my first lead fall. A little six footer after peeling at the crux

Some sand went into the shutter of the camera, which gave us a few on those cool pictures...

fire_eyes following baja_java on Annointed Seagull. Another butt shot (Photo by a non-climbing firend - Udi)

Just for fun. baja_java on the Aguille de Joshua Tree. Photo by fire_eyes.

While messing about on the atlantis wall in 2003, this fellow started soloing up and down pretty much everything... The crux of vorpal sword did give him some pause, but maybe it was just me on the ground taking a picture that made him sweat.

It was a little windy that day, but who can resist the giant penis? Photo by DancesOnRocks

An excellent climb at Lloyd's rock, starts with a lieback, then finger crack, and exciting roof traverse. Me placing gear before taking off on the 5.9 lieback section. Photo: courtesy of Mark Minjarez.

Anna hesitating to commit at the crux. The route goes over the corner, departing from a comfy undercling, through the rather bold face section, into the thin crack higher up. Photo: courtesy of Mark Minjarez.